Canada continuing to sweep the “Fossil of the Day” Awards!

Canada won again today, sharing a second place and first place Fossil of the Day Award.  The mock gala ceremony takes place every evening at 6 pm at every Conference of the Parties to mark the most shameful efforts to obstruct progress in climate talks.  So far Canada has a clear lead.  We already had five Fossil of the Day Awards. 
 
Today’s second place was for objecting to protecting indigenous rights in the negotiations on the deforestation agreement (referred to as the REDD talks for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries).   Our first place award was shared with Japan and Australia.  La Presse got the scoop.  There are in fact exactly two Canadian reporters here: from La Presse and Radio Canada. The “contact group” negotiations are closed meetings, and it is a contact group working on the Kyoto language.  Canada, Japan and Australia are trying to remove the targets referenced last year in Bali for industrialized countries – 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020.  These targets are essential if we are to avoid devastating climate impacts.  The idea of reducing those targets was bemoaned by an interesting side event operating in a very Establishment culture.
 
The side event panel included executives from KPMG and ING and the major attraction, Lord Nicholas Stern, former senior economist to the World Bank.  In this discussion, steeper emission reduction targets are favoured for financial reasons, as they encourage more rapid uptake of emerging technologies and proven ones like wind power.  Efforts to weaken targets were dismissed by Lord Stern as coming from countries that “are not sensible” and “irrational.” 
 
The good news from Stern is that he is confident the EU will “stick to its guns” on climate change. He is also very optimistic about the Obama Administration’s intentions.  Overall, he sees that, on a Business As Usual scenario, we “run a 50/50 chance of being above 3 degrees Celsius.”  We must shift away from that trend line. Otherwise, Stern sketched out the dangerous impacts of “climate security” risks --  enormous security threats of billions of people becoming environmental refugees, areas like Italy turning into “the Sahara.”  He sees those security risks as far greater than anything we are now facing from terrorism.  Prior to any of that happening, he warned of “major conflicts over water.”
 
He now believes his landmark report for the British Government, on the economic costs of failure to address climate change, understated the risk.  If nothing else, his ability to find hope in the EU resolve (under threat from Poland and Italy wanting exemptions) and the indications from President-elect Obama provided some respite from the gloom.  Lord Stern knows the world of finance.  He understands the need for what he calls “reflationary” investments in green infrastructure.  The best way out of our financial crisis is to aggressively address the climate crisis.